1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to a carbon nanotube array, and particularly to an isotope-doped carbon nanotube array.
2. Discussion of Related Art
Isotope labeling is a powerful tool in the study of nano-material growth mechanisms and in nano-sized isotope junction synthesis. Methods of isotope labeling use reactants containing different isotopes of special elements (usually light elements such as carbon, boron, nitrogen, and oxygen), which are fed in designated concentrations (pure or mixed) and sequences into a nano-material synthesis process to provide in situ isotope labeling of nano-materials.
A typical example is shown and discussed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,029,751B2, entitled, “ISOTOPE-DOPED CARBON NANOTUBE AND METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR FORMING THE SAME,” issued to Fan et al. on Apr. 18, 2006. This patent discloses an isotope-doped carbon nanotube array and method for making the same. The isotope-doped carbon nanotube array includes a plurality of identical isotope-doped carbon nanotubes which are used for labeling. However, the number of labels is limited by a single kind of isotope-doped carbon nanotubes in the isotope-doped carbon nanotube array, which limits isotopic labeling.
What is needed, therefore, is to provide a carbon nanotube array which includes a plurality of isotope-doped carbon nanotube sub-arrays, to overcome the above-described shortcomings.